Friday, January 31, 2020

Save the Tiger Essay Example for Free

Save the Tiger Essay This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (October 2009) Save the Tiger is a 1973 film about moral conflict in contemporary America. It stars Jack Lemmon, Jack Gilford, Laurie Heineman, Thayer David, Lara Parker and Liv Lindeland. The film was directed by John G. Avildsen. The screenplay was adapted by Steve Shagan from his novel of the same title (the first book by the author of The Formula and other thrillers, and generally regarded to be his most successful novel by literary standards). Lemmon won an Academy Award for his role as Harry Stoner, an executive at a Los Angeles apparel company on the edge of ruin. Throughout the film, Stoner struggles with the complexity of modern life versus the simplicity of his youth. He longs for the days when pitchers wound up, jazz filled the air, and the flag was more than a pattern to put on a pants pocket. He wrestles with the guilt of surviving the war and yet losing touch with the ideals for which his friends died. To Harry Stoner, the world has given up on integrity, and threatens to destroy anyone who clings to it. He is caught between watching everything he has worked for evaporate, or becoming another grain of sand in the erosion of the values he once held so dear. Plot A bleak story that depicts an outwardly successful man questioning the value of the material prosperity he is desperately trying to maintain, it follows the uncertain path of Harry Stoner, the real tiger (Jack Lemmon), an executive at an apparel company close to ruin. With no legal way to keep the company from going under, Stoner considers torching his warehouse for the insurance settlement. Meanwhile, he drinks, laments the state of the world, and tries his best to keep the business rolling as usual. This last task is complicated when a client has a heart attack in the arms of a prostitute provided by Stoner. With nerves still shaky, Stoner takes the stage at the premiere of his companys new line, only to be overcome by war memories. He ends the day spontaneously deciding to go home with a young, free-spirited hitchhiker, whose ignorance of his generation underscores his isolation from the world around him. At the end of the film, Stoner agrees to the warehouse getting torched and then walks by a Little League game and attempts to act as pitcher to the children. One child shouts out, You cant play with us, Mister! , leaving Stoner yet again isolated from another part of society. Production and reception The movie was written by Steve Shagan and directed by John G. Avildsen. Lemmon was determined to make the movie, despite its limited commercial prospects, and so he waived his usual salary and worked for scale. The movie was filmed in sequence after three weeks of rehearsal in Los Angeles. There is also a novel version of Save the Tiger, by Shagan: the title comes from a campaign to save tigers from extinction to which Stoner contributes. The movie failed financially at the box office, but critics and viewers who saw it liked the Oscar-winning performance of Jack Lemmon as Stoner. Why should we save tigers? At the turn of the 20th century, according to estimates, India probably had many thousand tigers in the wild. In 2002, based on a census using the pug mark technique, this number was 3,642. As per the monitoring exercise by Wildlife Institute of India in association with National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), Government of India, using camera traps, in 2008 we were left with only 1,411 tigers. This number is so small that they will be gone soon if we don’t wake up to the crisis. The tiger is not just a charismatic species or just another wild animal living in some far away forest. The tiger is a unique animal which plays a pivotal role in the health and diversity of an ecosystem. It is a top predator which is at the apex of the food chain and keeps the population of wild ungulates in check, thereby maintaining the balance between prey herbivores and the vegetation upon which they feed. Therefore, the presence of tigers in the forest is an indicator of the well being of the ecosystem. The extinction of this top predator is an indication that its ecosystem is not sufficiently protected, and neither would it exist for long thereafter. If the tigers go extinct, the entire system would collapse. For e. . when the Dodos went extinct in Mauritius, one species of Acacia tree stopped regenerating completely. So when a species goes extinct, it leaves behind a scar, which affects the entire ecosystem. Another reason why we need to save the tiger is that our forests are water catchment areas. Therefore, it’s not just about saving a beautiful animal. It is about making sure that we live a little longer as the forests are known to provide ecological services like cl ean air, water, pollination, temperature regulation etc.

Thursday, January 23, 2020

The Birth of the Congo as a Free State :: African History Essays

The Birth of the Congo as a Free State In the beginning years of his sovereignty, King Leopold the Second of Belgium began to show an interest in the natural resources of Central Africa, especially the wild rubber that was growing within the heart of the jungle. In the year 1876, he called a conference of humanitarians and travelers together who met at Brussels for the sole purpose of debating various plans of how the â€Å"Dark Continent† could be opened up (Doyle). From this conference, the International African Association was formed, which, in spite of its name, was almost entirely a Belgian body, with the Belgian King serving as the President. Its objective was the exploration of the country and the establishment of civilization centers and â€Å"rest-houses† for travelers (Doyle). At the same time, Leopold also pursued the spread of Christianity and freedom to the â€Å"savages† of Africa, so he hired the famous journalist and explorer Henry Morton Stanley to travel the length of the river t o begin signing treaties with the native tribes (Kinshasa). For almost six years from 1879 to 1884, this great explorer labored on behalf of King Leopold, investigating the basin of the Upper Congo River and simultaneously hoping to establish his own imperial society in Central Africa. Upon Stanley’s return from his great journey in 1878, he was met by a representative from the King of Belgium who enrolled him as an actual agent for his Association (Doyle). The immediate task given to Stanley was to open up the Congo for trade at once. Furthermore, he was to make terms with the natives that would enable the stations to be built and the depots established. Thus, in 1879 Stanley finally began his work (Doyle). Stanley labored hard among the Native Chiefs, undisturbed by any of the destructive effects that his own work created, and returned to his employer with at least 450 alleged treaties which transferred land to the Association. There is no record of the exact payment made in order to obtain these treaties, but there is evidence of a similar transaction carried out by a Belgian officer in 1883 at Palabala (Doyle). In that particular case, the payment made to the Chief consisted of "one coat of red cloth with gold facings, one red cap, one white tunic, o ne piece of white baft, one piece of red points, one box of liqueurs, four demijohns of rum, two boxes of gin, 128 bottles of gin, twenty red handkerchiefs, forty singlets and forty old cotton caps.

Wednesday, January 15, 2020

The Need to Introduce Flexible Benefit Plans for Employees

The employees of today†s workforce are divers. With such a workforce at hand, an employer must have a flexible benefit plan to match the composition of its employees. Flexible benefit plans are a written plan under which employees of a company are allowed to choose two or more benefits consisting of cash and qualified benefits (Everett & Miller, 1994). Some benefits offered under a flexible benefit plan are health care, dental, reimbursement accounts, life insurance, accidental death and dismemberment coverage, long-term disability, vacation, retirement savings, spouse accidental death and dismemberment coverage, and dependent care (Kleiner & Sparks, 1994). A young couple can be assured that their jobs not only meet the daily needs of their growing family, but that their children are covered for very little cost in their own employer-provided hospitalization and health care insurance. A worker employed by the same organization, approaching retirement, can choose benefits that will maximize his/her retirement income as much as possible. With his/her own children grown-up, he/she needs to attend only to his/her own needs. Also known as â€Å"cafeteria plans,† the organization offering a choice of applicable benefits to their employees ensures that the benefits for which they pay are the most useful for each of their employees. Costs are rising in almost every area of benefit provision and administration. The organization is able to secure more favorable rates for those benefits used, if the organization is not required to provide the same service to each employee (Webster, 1996). Employee benefit plans have had a long history, and can be traced back to 1794, when the first profit-sharing plan was created by Albert Gallatin in his glassworks in Pennsylvania (Kleiner & Sparks, 1994). Another notable benefit plan includes those made by the American Express Company in 1875 with the first private pension plan, and the first group annuity contract issued in 1921 by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company (Kleiner & Sparks, 1994). These early benefit plans were only the beginning of the benefit packages. As it turns out, the Social Security Act of 1935 gave employees across the country a legal framework that supported the development of many forms of employee benefits. Very few employers provide full family health care coverage at no cost to the employee in today†s world, but everyone can save when they provide that coverage only to those who need it. Even though the employee almost always shares the cost now, the employer still provides the major portion of the cost of health care insurance. In today†s increasingly competitive business climate, everyone is forced to operate as efficiently as possible. The advantage to the organization and employees of having a flexible benefit plan is clear. Businesses are not required to pay for services its employees will never seek. For instance, pediatric care was provided across the board in one organization, a significant numbers of the company†s leadership were well past the point of needing that type of coverage for their family (Webster, 1996). Flexible benefit plans can be a very important tool for recruiting new employees and retaining current employees. Also, the costs of administering such plans may be offset to a large extent by the payroll tax savings generated when employees convert previously taxable compensation and income into a nontaxable fringe benefit tax (Everett & Miller, 1994). Flexible benefit plans also provide the employee with the advantage of being able to ensure that benefits chosen are those that best meets their needs. The primary advantage of flexible benefit plans is that the employer and employee receive certain tax advantages. This depends on the types of programs the employee chooses. In some cases, the employee may choose cash rather than any benefits at all, but that option is dependent on company policy. For instance, many companies offer pay in lieu of off the job vacation time, but other companies insist that employees take their accrued vacation time. Another advantage of flexible benefit plans is the ability of the organization to shift some of the cost of benefits to the employees who use them, while simultaneously offering tax advantages in other areas such as 401K plans. Any benefit that is not paid in cash, but is treated as such, is taxable to the employee, but the employee tax liability decreases the employer†s. Any benefit that does not satisfy the nondiscrimination clause of the Internal Revenue code is taxable (Webster, 1996). Other benefits are nontaxable either to the employee or to the employer. To be nontaxable, the benefit must be a qualified benefit under Section 125. Such qualified benefits include accident or health plans, disability benefits, accidental death and dismemberment benefits, the first $50,000 of group term life insurance, a group dependent care assistance plan, and a group legal services plan (Webster, 1996). A disadvantage of flexible benefit plans is that employees are often overwhelmed by the numerous choices a plan may have to offer. In many cases, companies are contracting accountants, financial planners, investment counselors and other consultants to help employees wade through the vast array of options (Jurek, 1995). Such consultant use increases the employers† costs of providing the flexible benefits plans, but employers believe the guidance is needed. As for the IRS, it only requires organizations make flexible benefit plans available to all employees, not explain the intricacies of all options. Employers† that provide flexible benefit plans show the desire to in increase employees† loyalty to the company. In an increasingly tight labor market and faced with the necessity of operating as efficiently as possible, in order to remain competitive, employers view the flexible benefit plan as a tool to enhance employee morale. Flexible benefit plans are also used to improve employer-employee relationships, reduce overall costs of providing benefits, and reduce the incidence of employee turnover (Leonard, 1994). Replacing an employee can cost more than the annual salary of that employee, so it is to the employer†s advantage to retain as stable a workforce as possible (Leonard, 1994). From both the employer and the employee point of view, flexible benefit plans make sound financial sense (Kleiner & Sparks, 1994). These plans provide a way for employers to control and budget benefit cost. At the same time, it is also a way for employees to enhance their benefits while paying expenses with pre-taxed dollars.

Tuesday, January 7, 2020

Notes On Computer Science Engineering - 2290 Words

TERM PAPER On Hacking Submitted to Mr. Y.S Rathore Amity School of Engineering Technology Guided By: Submitted By: Mr. Y.S Rathore Raj Sharma A2305213236 AMITY UNIVERSITY UTTAR PRADESH GAUTAM BUDDHA NAGAR Declaration by the student I Raj Sharma student of B.Tech-3CSE3 hereby declare that the project titled HACKING† which is submitted by me to Department of Computer Science AMITY SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGY, Amity University Uttar Pradesh, Noida, in partial fulfillment of requirement for the award of the degree of Bachelor of Technology in Computer Science Engineering , has not been previously formed the basis for the award of any degree, diploma or other similar title or recognition. The Author attests that permission has been obtained for the use of any copy righted material appearing in the Dissertation / Project report other than brief excerpts requiring only proper acknowledgement in scholarly writing and all such use is acknowledged. 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